1. Field
This disclosure relates to virtual machines and, more particularly, to real-time computations within virtual machines.
2. Background Information
Virtual computing machines, which are commonly referred to as virtual machines (VMs) have typically been employed in a number of specific situations. A virtual machine may emulate, for example, a processor or microprocessor. VMs, at a high level, are typically software implementations of electronic hardware. Current embodiments of VMs are typically employed in batch-processing, time-sharing applications and security applications. Other uses of VMs include emulating hardware that may still be in development and not yet implemented. Such a use of a VM may be useful in debugging hardware during its development prior to actual implementation. This use of a VM may reduce development time and cost for the hardware that is being emulated in software. In this regard, a processor, which may currently be in development, could be implemented as a VM by employing a system that embodies a prior generation processor.
Prior implementations of VMs may be referred to as non-real-time. “Non-real-time,” in this context, means that a VM operates without any requirement that any specific computation or operation is accomplished by a well-defined deadline. Contrariwise, “real-time” means, in this context, that computations or operations upon data available at one substantially predetermined time are to be completed by another substantially predetermined time, which may be referred to as a deadline, as previously indicated. Typically, real-time applications comprise a hierarchy of such deadlines.
Emerging technologies, such as, for example, multimedia applications, typically contain real-time subsystems. These subsystems may include software components that employ such real-time deadlines. These deadlines, typically, would need to be met for such applications to function satisfactorily. Therefore, a need may exist for virtual machine configurations that may be employed for use with such technologies.